Reversal
by Jenna Wilder
Summary: Six individual encounters with their respective Generals, six character deaths. Rated for blood and manner of death. Fourth chapter, Anise and Arietta's duel. Slight spoilers in some chapters.
1. Turnabout

**A/N: Ah... yep. More blood and gore. I think I've been on an angst/death kick lately. Not sure why. .:sweatdrop:. A friend of mine thinks I'm overdoing it. Maybe I am, but I feel better after writing it (and consequently weeping my eyes out afterwards). Oh well. Morbid, six encounters with respective God-Generals, and six character deaths (I'm going to post them individually, in the order I wrote them) but hopefully something to make you think. Or cry. Or both. **

**Don't own TotA. I need something interesting for a disclaimer, I do. Whee.**

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Blood, pain, and death. Weren't those the three main points of his arts? As a soldier, he saw and caused enough of all three each and every day of his life, whether it was a monster or a bandit foolhardy enough to try to steal from the Necromancer.

It seemed fitting, almost, that this was the way his own story was ending. _Turnabout is fair play, is it not?_ he asked himself dryly, the half-smile on his face turning to a grimace of pain. The gaping hole through his middle was filled only by Dist's sword – who would have guessed that the man could wield a blade like that? – and he was reminded of that fact with even the simple shifting of his body.

Even after his victory, Dist seemed… unhappy. Hadn't he finally gotten what he wanted? The famed Necromancer, brilliant strategist and master fonist, was at his mercy. Jade could barely move his limbs; the numbness probably had something to do with lying in a mound of Keterburg's snow, but blood loss was the major factor.

The red pooling around his fallen body stained the pristine white of the snow, leaving behind a gruesome reminder of the killing that was being done here. The other members of Jade's companions were scattered through Keterburg, and the battle had taken place in Keterburg's main square, but even if Tear appeared now, there was no hymn powerful enough to recall him from his imminent death.

_Fair play indeed,_ flickered through his mind as Dist placed a hand on the hilt of the blade and drew it out, redoubling the flow of blood from Jade's fatal wound.

"Forgive me, old friend." The Necromancer caught the Reaper's whisper through a widening haze of black; he heard the slide of the blade once more and felt a distant spray of warmth, sensed something collapse next to him.

With his final strength, Jade smiled faintly, the emotion remaining on his face as he breathed his last. As he had lived, so had he died – concealing himself from the world with a smile.

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**A/N: It probably helps that I've been listening to fairly dark/melodramatic music (mostly from the Jekyll and Hyde musical. I only like three songs off it, though). I'ma go turn that off now. R&R please! Guy's up next. .:huggles him:.**

**And, yes, Dist did kill himself after he killed Jade. I don't think that was very clear. .:sweatdrop:. I just don't think he could kill Jade in cold blood.**


	2. Sacrifice

**A/N: Okay, next is Guy… .:sniffles:. Thanks for the positive reviews, guys.  
**

**You know the drill. I don't own TotA. Whee.**

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"I told you to come unarmed!" the green-haired God-General cried angrily, brandishing a handful of paper marked with fonic symbols. Alone and unarmed, to regain something precious he had lost.

Guy shook his head slightly, preferring to save his remaining strength for the fight he was currently engaged in. Sync was a formidable opponent even with Luke and the others fighting alongside him; now that he was alone, Guy felt… rather vulnerable. What did the boy have that was so important?

An Oracle Knight replica entered from the room they had just vacated, carrying a struggling woman with ease. Guy's heart sank as he realized that Noelle hadn't been able to avoid capture – _he_ had asked her to take him to Mount Zaleho to answer Sync's challenge. It was _his_ fault she was here.

Sync smiled – not the kind smile that made Ion who he was, but a smile that meant he could sense the tide of battle turning – and shifted into a attacking stance. "Here is your item of great value," he said quietly, watching Guy carefully. "What will you do to save her life?"

Guy knew what answer his opponent wanted to hear. No hesitation, no second thoughts; the sword clattered to the ground as the swordsman surrendered his weapon, and his life with it. "Let her go, Sync. She's innocent."

"Oh, I know." The God-General picked up the discarded weapon and motioned with it. "On your knees. This is your punishment for disobeying the instructions I gave you."

Guy sank to his knees, knowing what came next and praying he had the strength to take the blow without flinching. Once he was dead, Noelle would no longer be proper leverage, and Sync would let her go free.

The sword slashed horizontally once, and the blonde man crumpled to the floor. Having completed his mission, Sync nodded for the replica-knight to leave Noelle behind and accompany him.

Noelle was nearly speechless with terror; as soon as her feet touched through the ground, she ran to where Guy lay motionless, his shirt and jacket turning crimson.

"Guy – Gailardia – please, please don't be dead…"

His hand shifted enough to touch her face before falling back to his side. The gash across his neck had severed his vocal cords completely; unable to speak or to summon the strength to do anything more, he slowly, painstakingly mouthed the words that had been weighing so heavily on his heart.

_I love you…_

The life in his deep blue eyes vanished, leaving Noelle to cry alone.

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**A/N: .:weeps:. Guy… **

**Well… Tear's up next. R&R please!**


	3. Student

**A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, guys. Well, here's Tear... for some reason, I'm not really happy with the way any of the girls' deaths turned out. It just seems... impersonal, somehow. .:sigh:. Ah well. **

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Tear was used to fighting for her life. It was the way a soldier had to think – every movement could bring death, and she had to be ready to react in a split second. It was a lesson she had hammered into Luke's head until he could get his sword from his sheath before she even finished tapping him on the shoulder.

Still, it was hard to fight the woman you had idolized for years.

Legretta's bullets were difficult to dodge when the surface around you was heavily metallic and good for causing ricochets; it was necessary to stop each and every bullet or else track its path and possibly lose sight of Legretta herself.

Pain tore through her left leg, forcing her to lean on her staff. Somehow, she had missed tracking a bullet, leaving herself wide open to the woman who had taught her how to fight.

"You're still too slow," Legretta reprimanded, pointing one of her guns at Tear's forehead. At this distance, the shot would kill on contact, and the bullet would exit through the other side of the Seventh Fonist's head. A very messy way to die, Tear thought ruefully. She didn't want to die – she still had more to teach Luke, and after that she had to stop Van from destroying the world – but Legretta was not likely to allow her opponent to live, not after all the lectures she'd given Tear about having no pity for your enemy.

A single shot echoed loudly. The God-General put her weapons away and knelt beside Tear's body, gently brushing hair away from her student's pale face. "You no longer have to worry about Van," she murmured, regretting the taking of life, but sure that it was a necessary evil. If Tear had lived through this battle, she would have died later at her brother's hands. "Forgive me, but I had no other choice to spare you the misery of fighting family."

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**A/N: ... Yeah. Anise is up next. Sorry for the delay in chapter posting. R&R, please!**


	4. Revenge

**A/N: Well, here's Anise. Again, it feels impersonal somehow, but it was what came to mind at the time. Aaaah well. Read on!**

**Disclaimer: TotA isn't mine. Yay.**

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Ligers were dangerous beasts, Anise realized. Their skins might be worth a pretty penny, but the man who would try to kill one had to be suicidal or simply very stupid.

Which left her the question – which was she? She was fighting a liger, a griffin, and a furious young woman all at the same time. Suicidal had to be the right word; she didn't like thinking of herself as stupid.

"Anise, I hate you!" Arietta screamed for the fifth time as Tokunaga batted the liger aside with one enormous paw. "How dare you hurt my friends?"

Anise rolled her eyes and leaned forward, urging the fontech doll on and making it jump and swipe at the griffin. "Maybe you shouldn't tell them to fight me!" she exclaimed, twirling her staff and focusing her spell on Arietta's monsters.

"They want to help me get revenge on you for killing Ion!" the other girl replied angrily, creating a protective barrier to shield her friends.

Suicidal, indeed. A smart person would run, but Anise was sick and tired of her God-General counterpart continually reminding her of her part in her beloved Fon Master Ion's death. She hated Mohs for forcing her into it, hated herself for complying, hated Arietta for accusing her time and time again. "Gloomietta, I'm going to kill you!"

"Are you?" She looked smug, and Anise gasped as the liger raked its claws down her back. She whirled Tokunaga around, not quite fast enough, and the griffin latched onto the back of her Guardsman uniform and lifted her off the doll. Without her presence, Tokunaga reverted to its tiny size.

Arietta brandished a knife and stabbed it through Tokunaga, ripping the doll apart violently and examining the combination of fontech and fomicry that Dist had placed inside it when he created it. Anise's scream of anger was enough to frighten the monsters holding her captive – what had she been thinking, asking Arietta for a duel without telling the others in her group? – but Tokunaga was beyond repair.

"Oh, did I hurt your dolly?" Arietta asked coldly, examining the knife for specks of dust.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with knives, little girl?" Anise replied just as icily. She gasped as the God-General slashed across her face, drawing blood.

"Your _friends_ killed Mommy, remember? _They_ killed her, and _you_ killed Ion, and you've taken _everything_ that was precious from me!" With each angry word, she stabbed with the knife, until Anise was bleeding in ten different places and her dark brown eyes were devoid of the spark of life and mischief they had always held.

"I'm not sorry at all," Arietta remarked, wiping the short blade on Anise's uniform. "That's for Ion."

Like Tokunaga, Anise was beyond reply.

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**A/N: Meh. Read and review, please! Natalia's coming next.**


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